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Rockwood, Tennessee
Rockwood is a city in Roane County, Tennessee. The population of the city is 5,562. Demographics As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the racial composition of the city is: 90.36% White (5,026) 5.52% Other (307) 4.12% Black or African American (229) 23.6% (1,312) of Rockwood residents live below the poverty line. Theft rate statistics Rockwood has low to average rates of Pokemon theft and murder. The city reported 2 Pokemon thefts in 2018, and averages 1.05 murders a year. Pokemon See the Roane County page for more info. Fun facts * A Cherokee village situated in what is now Rockwood was the headquarters of Chief Tallentuskie, a Cherokee leader in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. * Roane State Community College is located at Rockwood. * Rockwood hosts the Tennessee Ground-Type Festival. It only hosted the Tennessee Grass-Type Festival once in 1970, but every other year since 1948, that has taken place in Chattanooga. * Union general John T. Wilder, who in the 1850s had managed a foundry in Indiana, noted the iron ore and coal deposits of the Cumberland Plateau region while operating in the area during the Civil War. After the war, Wilder and Ohio-born Knoxville Iron Company founder Hiram Chamberlain (1835–1916) purchased 900 acres (360 ha) at what is now Rockwood, selecting the location due to the ore and coal resources at the base of Walden Ridge, the proximity to the Tennessee River, and an assumption that the encroaching railroads would descend the Plateau at nearby Emory Gap. Wilder and Chamberlain enlisted several other investors from Indiana and Ohio, and the Roane Iron Company was chartered on June 18, 1867. By late 1868, the company had constructed a blast furnace with a capacity of 15 tons per day between the ridge and the end of what is now Rockwood Street. The company mined coal and iron ore along the ridge, which it transported by narrow-gauge rail to the furnace site. The coal was delivered to coking ovens, where it was converted into coke, and the coke was then used to generate the temperatures needed to convert the iron ore into pig iron. The pig iron was then shipped by river to rolling mills in Knoxville and Chattanooga, and was used primarily in railroad construction. In the early 1880s, Roane Iron purchased a rolling mill in Chattanooga and experimented with steel production, but the Walden Ridge ore proved to be too low-quality for such a process, and the company abandoned its steel venture in 1889. ** Roane Iron's Rockwood furnace employed a mix of local labor (both caucasian and African-American) and immigrants (especially Welsh immigrants), and did not practice wage discrimination. The company paid workers either cash, which was issued on paydays, or scrip, which could be issued anytime at the worker's request. Other than a miners' strike in 1904, Roane Iron experienced relatively few labor disputes, even though labor organizations were active in Rockwood. A series of mining accidents— namely a 1926 mine explosion— damaged the company's image and led to out-of-control workers' compensation payments, however, and in 1929 Roane Iron shut down operations. ** Noting the success of land auctions in nearby Cardiff and Harriman, Roane Iron held its own land auction for Rockwood in May 1890, selling several hundred lots and raising $600,000. To promote the city, the company laid out new streets, built new hotels, and allowed general stores to set up shop in the city and compete with the company store. These de-paternalization measures helped Rockwood survive the Panic of 1893, which doomed neighboring Cardiff. * In the early 20th century, Rockwood's economy further diversified. Former Roane Iron employee James Tarwater founded Rockwood Mills, which manufactured hosiery, in 1905. Another former Roane Iron employee, Sewell Howard, established Rockwood Stove Works in 1916. After Roane Iron's collapse in 1929, Rockwood struggled with unemployment. At the outbreak of World War II, however, the Tennessee Products Corporation reopened the iron works to produce ferromanganese for the wartime effort. * Like other Roane County communities, Rockwood's economy was boosted by the government's construction of nearby Oak Ridge during World War II. * Rockwood has a little bit of amenities to offer. It has dollar stores, the only Walmart in Roane County, Goodwill, a few fast food places, a bit of public battle fields, a little bit of local restaurants and businesses, a sports complex, a few RV parks, a municipal airport, a country club, an IGA, a few auto parts places and car dealerships, and not much else. Category:Tennessee Cities